Manufacturing is an increasingly automated process, and automated manufacturing is increasingly a multi-party affair. Tasks from the design of parts to the production of the parts by manufacturers may be distributed between various entities and across networks. In particular, the process of choosing a manufacturing method, device, or facility for manufacturing a part frequently requires comparing options at various sites and selecting a preferred option based on the comparison. This process typically involves communicating a design to a number of would-be manufacturers or devices under the control of those manufacturers, receiving in return information describing the manufacturing techniques, quality, time for production, delivery method, and price from each manufacturer for each potential process. Unfortunately, receiving accurate information from the manufacturers generally requires communicating a prospective design to the manufacturers, resulting in a high degree of security risk by exposing intellectual property to a number of parties. This is compounded by the increasing geographic distribution of manufacturing and of supply chains, where the best manufacturer for a designer's needs may effectively be located beyond the reach of laws protecting a designer's invention. Manufacturers may also have varying levels of security to prevent misappropriation from third parties. As a result, designers face a tradeoff: exploring more potential processes for production may produce better results, but at a mounting risk of security breaches.